Odd that you missed it given where you seem to be from. American football to my mind is the second toughest major sport in the world. The first is clearly ice hockey.
It has the hitting of American football compounded with the speed of being on ice. It has those sharp blades on players feet. If the ice did not keep them from getting traction, it would be so dangerous it could not be played.
As far as soccer or football goes, you dont have a hard shell helment on. Sure there can be freak accidents like the broken leg you showed. But there is not the physical play game in and game out, play after play like ice hockey and American football.
BTW, rodeo is an interesting choice as is mma.
Erm, American football! That's a joke. The game stopping every couple seconds! Pads! A third of the players grossly overweight!
Compare that with Australian Rules Football, or for that matter plain straight professional Rugby! The players not only have to be very fit (far fewer stoppages), but they have next to no padding, and the level of contact is obscene (e.g. in Aussie rules football literally running up an opponent's back and jumping off the shoulders to catch the football).
I'm sorry, but professional Rugby and Aussie rules are way tougher than American Football. Easily.
I’m and Aussie and have played American Football. Aussie Fotball is fast and tough on the body but I would rather be hit by the biggest Aussie Rules player than any on field player in NFL (obvioulsy I’m leaving out kickers) as you guys are trained to knock the stuffing out of someone else while it is more incidental in Aussie rules! So unless this guy has played both I don’t think he knows what he is talking about!
Mel
Rugby?.